Ernesto Valverde - V1

[FCBfan22]

Well, the cowardness of Ernie was shown again this weekend.

When Pique saw Lenglet ready, he started bitching to Valverde and Umtiti was subbed, despite being the better defender to that point.

He should also rotate his starters. In league, something like giving one half to Rakitić and one to Busquets is no crime. Play one each half at DM and they will be pretty rested. Plus that means giving chance to either Arthur or Vidal in RCM. But no, he won't sub before 65th minute. He is also predictable as fuck. I can name the starting 11 of CL knockouts now, if there is no injuries and we get there.

 

[Messi983]

Subbing Umtiti instead of Pique was the right decision. Big Sam will probably play both games for France while Pique will rest over the next two weeks. Getting some rest to Raki and Busi was also smart. Really don't know what people are complaining about.

But yeah, Valverde is a coward blablabla.

 

[Barcilliant]

He is a coward. He'll be exposed. This is his last season here.

 

[Andrew M]

He is a coward. He'll be exposed. This is his last season here.

I bet you're the type to hope we get knock out of the CL just to see him get fired.

 

[serghei]

No player on the planet is going to approach the manager and ask to be rested. It makes you look and feel like a wuss in any dressing room. If he has the opportunity to play he will always play.

It's up to the manager to make that decision and it's up to the manager to decide what is best for the team.

Valverde's decision to play Suarez and Messi against Leganes at home a few days before Roma away was just a historically stupid decision.

Totally.

Somebody here thinks Ronaldo approached Zidane and asked to be rested in La Liga last season? Zidane probably had to try hard and convince Ronaldo to skip playing some teams in La Liga, games he could've scored hattricks in, in order to save himself for CL, which was on the cards.

These judgment calls come from the manager.

The manager is the one who should have the bigger picture. Players like to play football and will play if the manager doesn't tell them they are sitting this or that game out for the good of the team in the long run.

I could agree that leaving it to the players is not unheard of, it's just that at this level it looks like a naive thing to do. And for the big clubs, this is a poor approach.

 

[messi2140]

Totally.

Somebody here thinks Ronaldo approached Zidane and asked to be rested in La Liga last season? Zidane probably had to try hard and convince Ronaldo to skip playing some teams in La Liga, games he could've scored hattricks in, in order to save himself for CL, which was on the cards.

These judgment calls come from the manager.

The manager is the one who should have the bigger picture. Players like to play football and will play if the manager doesn't tell them they are sitting this or that game out for the good of the team in the long run.

I could agree that leaving it to the players is not unheard of, it's just that at this level it looks like a naive thing to do. And for the big clubs, this is a poor approach.

I actually agree with you Serghei , but maybe if Devils understood what I wrote , he would have realized that I gave up on the fact , that I dont see it as a realistic possibility that Valverde would make such a judgement call. Which leaves us with the only option that the players themselves have to.

 

[Givenchy]

I have nothing against EV personally and was actually optimistic about his appointment thinking he'd give youth a chance but everything i've seen of him in his time at Barca is safety first pussy tactics. im not as bothered about the CL as some here, i just want to enjoy watching Barca again but for us to even think about winning it we need a manager with balls to motivate our aging stars/remnants of our golden generation. right now it feels like the team are managing themselves and we'll end up with a Roma 2.0 if we even make it that far.

EV winning the double was good and all but its just prolonged this shit for another season.. its a shame Sarri left Napoli, had he stayed 1 more year we could of got him

 

[DonAK]

Messi seem pretty insistent and motivated when it comes to the CL so let's see how this turns out. Perhaps EV will start rotating and planning the CL better.

 

[BarçaBarça]

Subbing Umtiti instead of Pique was the right decision. Big Sam will probably play both games for France while Pique will rest over the next two weeks. Getting some rest to Raki and Busi was also smart. Really don't know what people are complaining about.

But yeah, Valverde is a coward blablabla.

Because people has fixed their minds on very specific things, like "Dembele must be on the field" and "first Arthur, then Malcom needs to be subbed".
When the narrative breaks down, because Dembele stays on the field and a oldie/legend is subbed in Busquets, they just turn their heads to find something else to criticize.

I bet very few persons thought about who was going to play the most in during the national break in terms of who would be smart to sub, but coach Valverde did.

By the way, if Real won 8-2 everyone would shit on Valverde for not enabling this team to do thrashings anymore.
Now that it is the other way around, no-one gives 1 bit of credit to him that we do thrashings.

I bet you're the type to hope we get knock out of the CL just to see him get fired.

I for one are surprised by how many who are willing to say that they hope we lose, so that Valverde can go.. That is quite something.
I understand Manchester United fans, who could say that now, because there haven't been much improvement, and it is a meltdown.

But wanting our team to miss out on trophies, to 'be right' or clean out a successful coach is mindboggling to me.
Most wouldn't even be happy if we started to play more excitingly it seems. It is personal and about being right..

 

[Joan]

I've said it many times, one more can't hurt...whatever he does will be heavily criticised by the biggest part of the fanbase. People just don't like him and never will.

 

[Horatio]

By the way, if Real won 8-2 everyone would shit on Valverde for not enabling this team to do thrashings anymore.
Now that it is the other way around, no-one gives 1 bit of credit to him that we do thrashings.

Yes. Great paragraph.

 

[BarçaBarça]

Totally.

Somebody here thinks Ronaldo approached Zidane and asked to be rested in La Liga last season? Zidane probably had to try hard and convince Ronaldo to skip playing some teams in La Liga, games he could've scored hattricks in, in order to save himself for CL, which was on the cards.

These judgment calls come from the manager.

The manager is the one who should have the bigger picture. Players like to play football and will play if the manager doesn't tell them they are sitting this or that game out for the good of the team in the long run.

I could agree that leaving it to the players is not unheard of, it's just that at this level it looks like a naive thing to do. And for the big clubs, this is a poor approach.

At least that would fit the narrative better. If Messi simply is harder to convince, and Ronaldo more reasonable in his assessment of his own physical ability and need to rest etc. it would be bad for most Barca-fans view of those two. Therefore it must be the coaches who differ, and then we can shit on Valverde again.

I'd say it is at least as likely that Ronaldo is so determined and strategic to get CL-success (which gives more fame), that he is willing to give up league-playingtime, because he has a better feel with his physical abilities than Messi. Ronaldo is hysterical about sleep, rest and having the perfect form. Messi on the other hand just thinks that if he walks in most games, he will get through the games every 3 day. I'm not saying that it can't be done, but benching Messi was close to getting our last coach fired, so good luck doing that as a new coach.

 

[DonAK]

I've said it many times, one more can't hurt...whatever he does will be heavily criticised by the biggest part of the fanbase. People just don't like him and never will.

There's a lot of fair criticism and worries about Valverde and his style of management which is voiced around here that is put down as some sort of blind hate or narrative against Valverde wishing him and his team failure so they can be proven right.

Which in most cases isn't true.

And it's driven by some of the same people complaining about the toxic environment certain threads/topics here are becoming, a couple of them ready to dish out personal insults and other type of BS about other Barca legends as a way to put them down as an argument to defend Valverde, which is just dumb.

As for Valverde being criticized by the biggest part of the fanbase then it comes down to one game, and he deserves all the criticism he gets for it and what happened that night, and some people, whether they are right or wrong, will be wary of praising Valverde all too much until he rectifies that. You can point out various examples of Barcelona losing heavily vs Bayern, going out to Atletico, losing 4-0 to PSG, but the circumstances and the level of the opposition wasn't in any way comparable to what ensued April 10th.

 

[Horatio]

Difficult to compare the situation between Ronaldo and Suarez.

1) Madrid already out of the race to win La Liga(people will argue Barca already won it, but lets not forget the rumours dressing room wanted to end La Liga as early as possible to be able to prepare for WC)
2) Real had better bench
3) Suarez lost form, so maybe someone somewhere hoped the extra game would give Suarez more time to have things 'click' again. I dunno...but it makes less sense to have a player in bad form not play as well when you know you will need him. If you conclude the bad performance is because of fatigueness, then yes you rest him. If the conclusion is it is because of mental block then it gets more complicated.

 

[Joan]

There's a lot of fair criticism and worries about Valverde and his style of management which is voiced around here that is put down as some sort of blind hate or narrative against Valverde wishing him and his team failure so they can be proven right.

Which in most cases isn't true.

And it's driven by some of the same people complaining about the toxic environment certain threads/topics here are becoming, a couple of them ready to dish out personal insults and other type of BS about other Barca legends as a way to put them down as an argument to defend Valverde, which is just dumb.

As for Valverde being criticized by the biggest part of the fanbase then it comes down to one game, and he deserves all the criticism he gets for it and what happened that night, and some people, whether they are right or wrong, will be wary of praising Valverde all too much until he rectifies that. You can point out various examples of Barcelona losing heavily vs Bayern, going out to Atletico, losing 4-0 to PSG, but the circumstances and the level of the opposition wasn't in any way comparable to what ensued April 10th.

What you call fair criticism is not what I'm talking about. There's also a lot of nitpicking regarding all his decisions which sometimes don't align with popular opinions. 'He didn't rotate vs. Huesca. Meh. He'll never learn.' It's our third or what game of the season. 'Never plays Arthur.' Subs in Arthur. 'Never plays Malcom.' and so on.

I mean, do you think there's someone you could call a fan of Valverde? Fan coming from fanatic. His football not very entertaining, charisma of a damp rag... but as soon as people try to name a positive thing or two they've noticed, they'll be labeled apologists.

Of course, we can always talk about the match in Rome. Doubt many are willing to go through it every time it comes to Valverde. Probably most agree on that topic, not much discussion there. If a single match is a way to put down everything else regarding his work, what's the point?